Today we'll look at how to talk about occupations in Chinese.
The word for occupation in Chinese is 职业, pronounced zhíyè. However, as in English, when talking about your work or when asking somebody what they do, the question structure is a little different.
Rather than asking somebody what their occupation is, you're more likely to ask them what they do.
你做什么工作 ? lit. What work do you do?
你 nǐ : you
做 zuò : to do
什么 shén me : what, what kind
工作 gōng zuò­ : work
Obviously, there are numerous answers to this question. Here are some of the main occupations (if your occupation is not listed here and you'd like to know what it is, just let me know)
List of Occupations
老师 lǎoshī teacher
工人 gōngrén worker
厨师 chúshī cook or chef
翻译者­ fānyìzhě interpreter
售票员 shòupiàoyuán ticket seller
警察 jǐngchá police officer
公司职员 gōngsīzhíyuán­ office worker
音乐家 yīnyuèjiā musician
作者 zuózhě writer
画家 huàjiā painter
演员 yǎnyuán actor
护士 hùshi nurse